SPRING CONCERT

PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

May 2, 2017

7:30 p.m.

Bethel Philharmonic Orchestra

Violin I Rachel Hagen*

Petra Lee Liz Ophoven Linnea White

Violin II

Ashley Norton Binneboese Alex Eaton Lydia Kan

Megan Lahm Sarah Mandler Kaitlyn Wolff

Viola

Renee Beacham Casey Johnson

Caroline Belcher Nelson

Cello Laura Enoksen Allison Nelson Martha Riggs

Bass

Jacob Ashworth

Flute Rachel Doyle

Alyssa Hamre+

Oboe Janet Balej

Brittany Westberg

Clarinet Joyce Bjorklund Jonathan Preuss

Bassoon

Matt Gregg Joshua Li

Horn

Jeremy Abbott Mariellen Jacobson Jessica Lahti Palmer

Phillip McDougle

Trumpet Griff DeGolier Sarah Grant

Jonathan Seaberg Daniel Sievert

Trombone

Anders Larson Gary Seaberg

Howard Simms

Tuba Erik Carlson

Percussion Keegan Feller Sarah Grant

Mackenzie Henson Levi Nelson Abbey Sharp

Harp

Chloe Shepeck

* Concertmaster

+ Piccolo

Program Around the World in 80 Minutes

Colas Breugnon Overture, Op. 24 Dmitri Kabalevsky

Russia, 1938

Flower Clock (L’horloge de flore) Jean Françaix

France, 1959

3 AM Galant de Jour (Day Jessamine or Poisonberry)

5 AM Cupidon Bleu (Cupid’s Dart or Blue Catananche)

10 AM Cierge à grandes fleurs (Night-Blooming Cereus or Torch Thistle)

12 Noon Nyctanthe du Malabar (Night-Flowering Jasmine or

Malabar Jasmine)

5 PM Belle de Nuit (Moonflower or Morning Glory)

7 PM Géranium triste (Geranium or Mourning Geranium)

9 PM Silène noctiflore (Night-Flowering Catchfly)

Janet Balej, oboe

Karelia Overture, Op. 10 Jean Sibelius

Finland, 1893

Karelia Suite, Op. 11 Jean Sibelius

Finland, 1893

Intermezzo

Ballade

March

Intermission Lachian Dances Leoš Janáček

Czech Republic, 1889

I. Starodávny (The Ancient One)

V. Čeladensky (From Čeladńa)

VI. Pilky (Saw Dance)

Dance of the Hours Amilcare Ponchielli

from La Gioconda Italy, 1876

Program Notes Colas Breugnon Overture Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky based his 1938 opera Colas Breugnon: The Mas-ter of Clemency on French author Romain Rolland’s novel of the same name. Rolland, despite granting Kabalevsky free interpretive reign regarding the story, expressed dis-appointment at the libretto. This is perhaps due to the fact that Colas is set in Burgundy (France) and some of the ideals set forth in the novel would not have been accepted by the Soviet Communist Party. In stark contrast to the contrived political ambiguity of Dmitri Shostakovich, Kabalevsky was a member of the Communist Party beginning in 1940 and remained a loyal member throughout his career. With that, his music con-formed to the standards set by the party and was aimed at the broad appeal to the masses through use of folk (or folk-like) tunes, major keys, etc. Some of the folk aspects are French influenced as opposed to being Russian and simply superimposed on a dif-ferent location. The opera is comic but is not without its dark moments of drama. 16th century carpen-ter Colas Breugnon’s past and present loves serve as episodes throughout the show. The primary action centers around a villainous Duke as antagonist to Colas (used in the opera as representative of the working class Soviets). The overture prepares both the comic and dramatic aspects of the opera through two main sections. The first is a highly energetic splash of sound followed by a quirky, slightly off-kilter melody. After various interjections from the brass, low strings, and percussion, the melody works itself into a frenzy that is interrupted several times by the solo timpani. The music eventually winds itself down into a darker sustained melodic section that serves as the second, con-trasting part. The upper strings sing the tune overtop a tremulous landscape of sound first provided by low strings and woodwinds, then by the brass. Trumpets lead the or-chestra in a cry of despair that grind the piece to a momentary halt only to resume with a return to the comic absurdity of the first section. The recapitulation revisits many of the themes presented earlier, and the orchestra revs up into an ending that benefits from the element of surprise. (Notes by Jeffrey Spenner) Flower Clock Flower Clock (L’horloge de flore) takes its conceptual title from an idea of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), who is best known today for the modern taxonomic system of phyla. Linnaeus also proposed a clock-style classification of flowers based on the time of day when each blooms. The English poet Andrew Marvell had anticipated such an idea in his poem “The Garden” (1678): “How well the skillful gardener drew/ Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new/…And, as it works, th’ industrious bee/ Computes its time as well as we./ How could such sweet and wholesome hours/ Be reckoned but with herbs and flow’rs!” Françaix collected seven of these blooms and composed a descriptive piece, with each section bearing a time of day and the name of a flower. Thus the poison berry appears at 3 a.m., the Malabar jasmine at noon and the night-flowering catchfly at 9 p.m. Françaix composed the Flower Clock for John de Lancie, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. (Notes by Ed Rutschman)

Karelia Overture Sibelius regularly composed incidental music to accompany stage plays and pageants. The first commission to do so appeared in 1892 from the Viipuri Student Corporation at the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki to bolster Finnish, and specifically Kare-lian patriotism, in the face of ominous political rumblings from Finland’s powerful and belligerent neighbor, Russia. Sibelius began work on the score during the summer of 1893. It consisted of an overture and music to be heard during, and at times in between, the eight tableaux of the pag-eant. Before the month was out, he began conducting extracts from the score at con-certs. A friend, conductor Robert Kajanus, assembled the three-movement suite that consists of music from the third, fourth, and fifth tableaux (Op. 11). It was not until 1896 that he decided to issue the Overture separately (Op. 10). The Overture to Karelia is based on three themes: a noble opening strain in striding rhythms; a hymn-like melody of serious demeanor; and (after a recall of the opening strain) what Sibelius called the “march in the old style” that accompanied the third tab-leau. All three ideas are treated in the development section and returned in the recapit-ulation in condensed but intensified variants before the Overture reaches its stirring close. (Notes by Don Anderson) Karelia Suite The Karelia Suite opens with an atmospheric and exciting Intermezzo. It depicts four-teenth-century Karelian woodsmen passing in procession, proudly and defiantly, on their way to pay taxes to a Lithuanian duke. The second movement, a melancholy Bal-lade, was originally a vocal piece. The tableau showed a deposed fifteenth-century king, Charles Knutsson Bonde, sitting in his castle and listening to a minstrel. The suite con-cludes with a festive march. It followed a call to battle issued by Pontus de la Gardie, a French-born, sixteenth-century soldier who became Swedish high commander in a war against Russia. (Notes by Don Anderson) Lachian Dances Most of Janácek’s work on the Lachian Dances was done by the late 1880s. The title is an abbreviated form of Wallachian, referring to the region of Wallachia in the northern part of Moravia, near the Polish border, where Janácek was born and from which many of the work’s melodies and dance rhythms were derived. One of Janácek’s first mature compositions, the Lachian Dances received their first performance on January 11, 1889 in Olomouc. The composer returned to the Dances in the mid 1920s, reordering the six movements and adjusting the orchestration. The first movement, “Old-Time Dance I,” combines a wedding dance in 3/4 time, introduced by the violin, and a livelier “club” or “ribbon” dance in duple meter. One can hear clearly the influence of Dvorák, particu-larly his Slavonic Dances, in both the melodies and orchestration. The title of the fifth movement, “Celadensky,” refers to the village of Celadná from which this lively dance came. The finale, “Saw Dance,” had its origins in a dance related to the farmer’s preparations for the onset of winter, cutting and storing wood for the fire. This dance falls into three parts – an opening Andante, a more vigorous second section, and an even faster conclusion. (Notes by Chris Morrison)

Dance of the Hours The Dance of the Hours is from the third act of Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda. For the guests of a lavish party, the Duke Alvise presents a ballet symbolizing the victory of right over wrong. The dancers impersonate the hours of the dawn, day, evening, and night. It is one of the most parodied pieces in opera. Anyone who has seen Walt Disney’s os-triches and hippos performing this in “Fantasia,” or who has heard Allan Sherman’s “Hello Muddah; hello Fadduh” will probably be unable to listen to this music without remembering them. (Notes by Jim Yancy)

The Bethel Orchestras The Bethel University Orchestra program was founded by Dr. Lynda Bradley Vacco in 1995 and flourished under her direction until her untimely death in 2015. What began with a fledgling group of 10 string players is now two separate orchestras, the Chamber and Philharmonic, each with a full complement of winds and percussion. The orchestras’ repertoire covers a diverse and delightful collection of music, including works of the standard orchestral literature spanning the baroque to contemporary periods. The Philharmonic Orchestra is a full symphonic orchestra open, by audition, to all members of the Bethel Community including students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the larger community as openings allow. It rehearses one night a week and gives one concert a semester. The Bethel Chamber Orchestra is designed for music majors, minors and other serious players. They perform repertoire ranging from the Baroque through the Modern Era. The Chamber Or-chestra tours annually, gives its own concerts as well as participating in Festival of Christmas and Classics in the Great Hall. They also play regularly in Chapel and collaborates with the Opera Workshop and other musical theater events. The Bethel Orchestras include students from numerous academic disciplines. In addition to performing new works of young composers, the orchestra frequently collaborates with the choirs at Bethel University. Bethel Orchestras have performed with popular Christian artists Selah and Twyla Paris and can be heard on Bethel’s Festival of Christmas recordings.

Steven Thompson, conductor Steven B. Thompson joined the Bethel University faculty in September 2002 as director of instrumental activities and professor of music. He received a bachelor of music education degree from the Wheaton College Conservatory, a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the Pea-body Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and a doctor of arts de-gree in instrumental conducting from the University of Northern Colo-rado. Prior to coming to Bethel University, Thompson taught in Minne-sota and Connecticut public schools, as well as served on the faculty at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. Thompson has played with the Annapolis Symphony, the Greeley Phil-

harmonic, the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Austin Symphony, and the Rochester Symphony. He has appeared as a soloist with the Austin Symphony, the Bethel Chamber Or-chestra, and the Clear Lake (IA) Municipal Band. He is sought after as a clinician and adjudica-tor, having served throughout Iowa and Minnesota. His bands have performed to great acclaim across the country and overseas. In February 2015, the Bethel Wind Symphony was one of two university bands to be invited to perform at the an-nual Minnesota Music Educators Association Mid-Winter Conference in Minneapolis. Following the success of the Wind Symphony’s 2011 concert tour of Malaysia and Singapore, Thompson brought the group back to the continent in 2015 for a tour of South Korea.

Janet Balej, oboe Janet is a native of St. Louis Park and grew up studying oboe with Rachel Brudnoy. She majored in music and French at Mount Holyoke College and as part of her degree was a visiting oboe student at New England Conservatory. Following undergraduate studies, she won a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to pursue a graduate diploma in oboe performance at the Australian National University Canberra School of Music. She later received an MBA in accounting and finance from Georgia Tech and became a licensed CPA. She has spent most of her career working with not-for-profits including Emory University and the Carter Center and is currently the controller at the Guthrie Theater. She also plays with the Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and the Gnu

Woodwind Quintet, sings in the choir at St. Mark’s Cathedral, and is a MN State Fair award-winning quilter. She lives in Fridley with her 4 felines.

Department of Music and Bethel University The Department of Music at Bethel University is highly regarded for its commitment to excel-lence in teaching and its outstanding performance organizations. The Bethel Choir, Wind Sym-phony, and Chamber Orchestra tour extensively throughout the United States and abroad. These groups, along with Bethel’s other performance ensembles, perform together in Bethel’s annual Festival of Christmas, Jazz in the Great Hall, and Classics in the Great Hall concerts. The Philharmonic Orchestra, Chapel Choir, Men’s Choir, Women’s Choir, Jazz Orchestras, Handbell Ensemble, and string and wind chamber ensembles offer additional performance opportunities. The distinguished music faculty guide students through specialized courses of study leading to bachelor’s degrees in music education, applied performance, and composition. In addition to the bachelor of music degrees, a bachelor of arts degree in music is offered with emphases in vocal, instrumental, keyboard or music composition. It is also possible to combine a bachelor of arts degree with another major. Frequent double majors combine music with Business, Biblical and Theological studies, English, or pre-Music Therapy, but many other combinations are also pos-sible. A minor in music is also available. Bethel’s performance facilities include the 1,700-seat Benson Great Hall in the Lundquist Com-munity Life Center, completed in the fall of 1994, which is recognized as one of the finest concert halls in the Upper Midwest. With its 67-rank Blackinton Organ installed in 2002, Benson Great Hall is the only concert hall in the Twin Cities with a pipe organ. Bethel University is a leader in Christ-centered higher education with nearly 5,000 students from 49 states and 21 countries enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, seminary, and adult edu-cation programs. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, with an additional seminary location in San Di-ego, California, Bethel offers bachelor’s and advanced degrees in nearly 100 fields. Educationally excellent classroom-based and online programs equip graduates to make exceptional contribu-tions in life-long service to God and the world.

Department of Music Faculty Kimberly Allmann, M.M., Horn Trudi Anderson, M.M., Flute Jeffrey Brueske, M.M., Jazz Bass David Crittenden, D.M.A., Guitar Gary Crowe, M.M., Saxophone Emily Hagen, M.M., Viola Angela Waterman Hanson, D.M.A., Violin Jason Harms, B.S., Jazz Orchestras Director Joshua John, M.M., Bassoon Herbert Johnson, D.M.A., Professor of Music Director of Keyboard Activities, Piano, Piano Pedagogy Mark Kausch, M.M., Double Bass Merilee Klemp, D.M.A., Oboe Zachary Miller, B.M., Jazz Percussion Cheryl Oie, B.M., Voice, Class Voice Tina Juan Park, D.M.A., Piano, Class Piano Gene Peterson, D.M.A., Associate Professor of Music Director of Choral Activities, Bethel Choir, Women’s Choir, Men’s Choir, Chapel

Choir, Festival Choir, Conducting John Povolny, M.M., Percussion Mark Rhoads, D.M.A., Professor of Music Music Education, Women’s Choir, Men’s Choir, Chapel Choir, Music and

Worship Hannah Schendel, M.M., Director of String Activities, Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Methods, Violin (Starting July 2017) Stephen Self, Ph.D., D.M.A., J.D., Professor of Music Music History, Music Theory, Piano, Organ Carrie Shaw, D.M.A., Voice Kevin Shull, M.M., Manager of Music Organizations, Handbell Ensemble Director Pam Sohriakoff, M.M., Staff Accompanist Gerard Sundberg, D.M.A., Voice Steven Thompson, D.A., Professor of Music Director of Instrumental Activities, Wind Symphony, Chamber Orchestra,

Philharmonic Orchestra, Conducting, Methods, Trumpet Emily Urban, B.F.A., Staff Accompanist Marshall Urban, M.M., Voice Jonathan Veenker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music Department Chair, Director of Vocal Activities, Director of String Activities,

Composition, Music Theory, Music Technology Catherine Victorsen, M.M., Harp Hong Wang, D.M.A., Cello Richard Wyland, M.M., Clarinet Larry Zimmerman, M.M., Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba

Upcoming Events

Friday, May 5, 7:30 p.m. Jazz in the Great Hall

Tickets: tickets.bethel.edu

Friday, May 12, 7:30 p.m. Classics in the Great Hall Tickets: tickets.bethel.edu

Sunday, May 14, 3 p.m.

Handbell Ensemble Spring Concert

Thursday, May 18, 5-8:30 p.m. Swingin’ at the Lake Como Park Pavilion

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651.638.6380 | music@bethel.edu | www.bethel.edu

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